ReservecaliforniaReviews of reservecalifornia.com

Yesterday I posted how frustrating the Reserve California system can be. Today was more of the same. I tried logging in 10 minutes early to get ready only to have it keep telling me I need the Captcha. OK, done that before, no problem. Except it wouldn’t let me do it. Over and over, logging out and trying again and again. Having it kick me out and trying again and again. I was thinking as time was getting to 8:00 a.m., I have no choice but to try to grab a spot and then log in. It was my only choice now so I did that. I grabbed a spot and of course, it still said I need a Captcha. Thinking (hoping) I at least I had it held I called the phone number (that worked once for me). After being on hold for 10 minutes, I got an employee who said she was having trouble getting in the system too. She told me she could see the dates but could not log in (same as me). By now she confirmed someone had taken two of the three nights I was trying to hold because the Captcha had kicked me out. This is not something new. I explained to her my current and past frustrations and the conversations I have had in campgrounds with people who have had it with the Reserve California system. The rolling window was a disaster, being able to “extend” dates causes people to play games by reserving earlier than needed to extend to the dates they really want. All she could say was “I know” – I asked why it doesn’t get fixed if they know? No answer…

I sent the following email to the state park spokesperson. Mr. Moreno, Having read in news articles that the state park system wants to hear from consumers with complaints about the reservation system, here is my two-cents. I have been trying for weeks to reserve a particular site #133 at Sugar Pine Point State Park. I track the site via the website reservation system multiple times a day. I know this particular site was open on Sat July 6 and then reserved for the maximum 15-day window from July 7 ending on July 21. As of this morning Jan 15, the site had not booked from July 22 on. This afternoon, I see that the site is now booked from July 22 thru July 27. How can this be I wonder? I spoke with one of your phone CSR’s who advised that the reservation was modified by the person who had the prior dates reservation. How can this be I again wonder since this is beyond the 15-day maximum reservation block. The CSR advised that the prior 15-day block was actually two different reservations. How can this be I triple wonder since I have been monitoring this particular site, multiple times per day, every day for weeks. The prior reservation was originally made for a single 15-day block. Clearly, the reservation system is being manipulated to benefit someone. And some wonder why people refer to this state as “Corruptafornia”.

The website is terrible ever since it changed from Reserve America. I will go through the process of logging in at 8:00 to grab the site I want, putting in all my information and it will disappear before I can pay. Sometimes it won’t let you log on or it won’t let you put in the campground your looking for. It has so many problems.

Horrible website! Impossible to make reservations when site is busy. Both Firefox and Chrome browsers crash/hang when trying to make a reservation. California State Parks, you really screwed this one up! Go back to reserve America.

This Reservation System is horrible. The process of going in everyday to find an available site is a joke. The site doesn't work properly if it is overloaded. And, then if you can get into the system, the most popular lodging sites are ALWAYS unavailable. It is way too time consuming and frustrating just to try and get a reservation to enjoy our State's beautiful parks!!!! It seems that people are able to extend reservations beyond the dates that come available for the general population just by paying a fee. So makes me wonder if there is some kind of "insider" gaming of the rules going on here. Liked Reserve America's site and process so much better! It was way more "transparent"...

ReserveCalifornia is a not a fair reservation system. I don’t why the state switched from ReserveAmerica, which was perfect. However ReserveCalifornia will sure bring in lots of money for the state parks in a way that may violate state park rules. I can’t seem to be able to reserve any popular camp sites along the coast for weekends even 6 months in advance. After studying its reserve system for an hour , I now know why. ReserveCalifornia allows reservation to be made upto 6 months in advance. Its 6 month window is pushed out continuously everyday at midnight. Unlike in ReserveAmerica it’s 6 month window is pushed out by a week window, not on a daily basis. Now under ReserveCalifornia , all the popular camp sites are fully booked even for Monday through Thursday. That never happened in ReserveAmerica. Most people don’t camp during weekdays but why are the sites are booked ? Here’s why: when the reservervation opens on Monday , you can actually reserve 7 nights. That means the reserved nights can be upto 6 months plus 7 days in advance. So people in fact book 7 nights starting Monday to cover the weekend. They will eventually waste 4 or 5 nights of money assuming they won’t camp Monday through Thursday. They will then need to call the park everyday during the checkin week to notify the park staff that they will delay the check in by a day. Horrible system. If you agree then write a complain to the state park. The park system is still getting money for those booked but unoccupied camp sites. We are being ripped by ReserveCalifornia.

The wrong sites pull up for booking and error messages show up everywhere. This is a terrible, bug-ridden system that makes it very difficult to reserve camping spots. I wish they had never switched from reserveamerica!

Shocking experience. I booked three nights accommodation via their website for camping in the State Parks this summer. The money was taken from my bank account but I received no confirmation of the booking. On the bookings Section of my account it states nothing to display. Looking at my bank account $120 has been debited from my account. I have sent many unanswered emails, no apology. Then followed expensive calls to USA. Again, no explanation and no apology. I am having to raise this as a fraudulent transaction with my bank. Complete disregard for the upset this has caused. BEWARE Of USING THIS WEBSITE. Who knows when or if they will explain or reimburse me.